XOLOS HAVE NEW LOOK, IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE

Tijuana Xolos vs. Club America

What: Preseason friendly between Liga MX teams.

Site/time: Petco Park/7:30 p.m. today.

TV: Fox Sports Deportes

Crowd: Estimated 30,000.

Xolos outlook: The game matches the last two Liga MX champions, the Xolos having won the Apertura crown in December and America claiming the Clausura title in May. It is the debut for new coach Jorge Almiron, who replaced Antonio Mohamed. Joe Corona, Edgar Castillo and Herculez Gomez are with the U.S. national team and unavailable. New signing Dario Benedetto of Argentina joined the club Thursday but it is unclear if he will play at Petco. This is the Xolos’ fourth major friendly in San Diego and they have yet to lose, having won twice at USD’s Torero Stadium and tied America 1-1 last summer at Qualcomm Stadium.

America outlook: Mexico’s richest club comes to San Diego after a wild “friendly” against rival Chivas of Guadalajara in Las Vegas, where police were summoned to break up a brawl in the parking lot and the game was ended prematurely after fans stormed the field. This figures to be a far more docile affair, with peaceful relations between the two teams. Five Club America regulars have been called to Gold Cup duty by Mexico. But most of the team that dramatically beat Cruz Azul in the Liga MX final is here, including Colombia’s Aquivaldo Mosquera, who scored a key goal in the second leg.

Usually when sports teams have a season for the ages, when they win a championship in just their seventh year of existence and make a deep run in a prestigious international tournament, they double down and ride the status quo.

Not the Tijuana Xolos.

Some of it was beyond their control, their beloved head coach deciding he couldn’t live apart from his family in Argentina any longer. But some of it was by design, unloading their leading scorer and several other regulars, ripping out the bouncy artificial turf that opposing teams swore gave the Xolos an unfair home-field advantage.

New coaching staff. New defenders. New midfielder. New forwards. New game nights. New international tournament. Even a new second-division affiliate in Dorados of Sinaloa.

So it’s only appropriate that the Xolos chose a new venue for their annual friendly on this side of the border, playing Club America tonight across the outfield at Petco Park.

New coach

When Antonio “El Turco” Mohamed returned to Argentina after a heartbreaking elimination in the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores, the Xolos wasted no time hiring what looks an awful lot like El Turco 2.0. Jorge Almiron also was born in Buenos Aires, also played in the Mexican league, also coached in Mexico, also has a Mexican passport, also took over the Xolos at age 41.

“He has a lot of similarities to Mohamed,” said Xolos Assistant General Manager Roberto Cornejo, “but we didn’t hire him because of their similarities. It was because he was the best coach we could find that fit the mentality of our club. That he wouldn’t back down from playing our younger kids coming up through the system is something that ties in very well with the club.